Bertrand Bellier

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT BERTRAND BELLIER

We previously designed an innovative vaccine strategie based on retrovirus pseudo-particles (VLP) and used them as vaccine platforms for antiviral vaccination. We demonstrated that such vaccines induce enhanced cellular and humoral immune responses and can be used for different applications. The patent have been licensed to VBI Vaccines (US), which is developing a prophylactic vaccine to prevent cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection. Based on this previous expertise in vaccine design, we recently adapt the VLP platform for tolerogenic vaccination. We have designed recombinant tolerogenic VLPs expressing immune checkpoint molecules on their surface and demonstrated their efficacy to block DC activation and T-cell proliferation, both in vitro and in vivo. We demonstrated their therapeutic efficacy in allergy and autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) models. This proof-of-concept led to the filing of two new patents for using retroVLPs as therapy of immune disorders. We now want to strengthen the results, optimize the therapy for allergy and autoimmune diseases, and characterize more precisely the related immune mechanisms.